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Notre
Dame Fighting Irish

Tripucka was backup quarterback to Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lujack on Frank Leahy's unbeaten
Notre Dame squads in 1946 and 1947. When Lujack graduated, Tripucka
became the 1948 starter. He led the team to a 9-0-1
record, their only blemish being a 14-14 tie with USC in the last game
of the season. Notre Dame finished #2 in the final polls and
Tripucka was named an All American.

Saskatchewan Roughriders

In 1953 Tripucka moved to Canada to play with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The
'Riders had just hired Frank Filchock as coach, and Tripucka
joined him as the starting quarterback. He played there through
1958, when he was traded to the Ottawa Rough Riders, but he was
back in Saskatchewan before the end of the 1959 season as coach.
The Roughriders were having a dismal season.

Non-Canadians playing Canadian professional football were known
as imports. In 1959 each Canadian Football League team
was limited to 12 imports. Coach Tripucka was ineligible to play
because the Roughriders already had these 12 roster spots filled.
However, in the fourteenth game of the season, all three Roughrider
quarterbacks were sidelined by injuries. For the last two games,
management decided to play Tripucka anyway.

Because of the ineligible player, these two games were forfeit
in advance. The Roughriders lost the first of them on the
scoreboard as well, 20-19 versus the Edmonton Eskimos. In the last game of
the season, versus Bud
Grant's Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Tripucka
had 17 completions in 29 passes and Ferdy Burket ran for five
touchdowns. At the end of the game the Roughriders led 37 to 30.
The final, official score was Saskatchewan 37, Winnipeg 30 for a
Winnipeg victory.

Tripucka played seven seasons in Canada.

American Football League

The American Football League was
founded in 1960, and Tripucka's old coach at Saskatchewan, Frank
Filchock, was hired as the first coach of the new league's Denver Broncos.
He brought Tripucka with him as an assistant coach. However the
Broncos also had quarterback problems, and in preseason Filchock
sent Tripucka in as a player. He became their first starting
quarterback in the regular season and played with the team for four
seasons. He was the first U.S. pro quarterback to throw for 3,000
yards in a season. He also threw the first touchdown pass in the
history of the AFL. In 1962 he was named
to the AFL All Star team.